Really? July Already?!

 

Sometimes one just has to stop and smell the clover.

There is not a lot new to write about this week.  Mostly the same old summer stuff: doing chores, working in the garden, spending long days outdoors and collapsing on the couch after a late dinner.  

This past week, Sam picked wild raspberries.  He gave me about 6 quarts, which was enough to do 2 batches of jam and 1 pie.  I spent a great deal of time on that last Friday.  I'm not sure if it was the berries, or what, but that is one of the best raspberry pies I have ever made and I didn't even put chocolate in it (which I do sometimes, just a little).  So we are stocked up on jam, but I will make peach if there is a good peach crop this year and I manage to procure some.

Then on Tuesday when I went to work in the garden, which I had not done since Sunday, I realized I had a lot of beets that were ready to harvest and I had better get to it.  I had enough ready to do one batch of pickled beets.  I will continue to do a batch at a time as they get to harvesting size.  I usually get 4 or 5 batches which each produce 5 pints or so.  

And in between the jam and the beets, I drove to Pittsburgh on Saturday to get the cabinets mom had chosen for the kitchen project.  The cabinets came in 78 pieces, all of which were flat boxes and plastic bags of hardware, so guess what I did Sunday and Monday afternoons?  You got it, I assembled cabinets.  I only put the boxes together and now Sam is working on installing them and then I will put on doors and drawers and all that fun stuff.  To the right is how the kitchen looks as of this morning.  The cabinets will be brown once the doors and side panels are installed and we went last night and purchased some stock laminate counter tops that look like (but aren't) granite.  So it is all coming together.  I know Sam is anxious to get this project done.  He is out of homebrew, and this is his brewing kitchen! 

 I went up yesterday morning in hopes of getting some photos of bees on the buckwheat, which is blooming like crazy, but I think I was too early.  However, I was amazed at how tall the buckwheat had gotten.  To the left, the white you see in the center is the buckwheat blooming.  

                                    And closer a closer view.

The butterfly weed is also starting to bloom and here it is before the buds open.

 And after.  I just love the colors.  

This weekend, our county seat, Woodsfield, is celebrating its Bicentennial along with the traditional 4th of July festivities.  As part of that, I will be setting up a canopy in the town square in front of the court house tomorrow and Saturday and offering my alpaca products and maple syrup for sale.  The weather is forecast to be perfect, upper 70's to low 80's and low humidity.  How lucky is that?  I'm not sure if I will sell much, as our county is very small population-wise, but it costs me nothing and I will take my spinning wheel and chat with people and on Saturday my friend Tari will also be there.  To give you an indication of how small town we are, Woodsfield, the county seat, has a population of about 3000 people.  It also boasts the only 5 traffic lights in the entire county and if you stand in the center of town you can see all of them from one spot.  Think about that!